Cleopatra eBook

CHAPTER I.

ThevalleyoftheNile.

The parentage and birth of Cleopatra.—­Cleopatra’s
residence in Egypt.—­Physical aspect of
Egypt.—­The eagle’s wings and science.—­Physical
peculiarities of Egypt connected with the laws of
rain.—­General laws of rain.—­Causes
which modify the quantity of rain.—­Striking
contrasts.—­Rainless regions.—­Great
rainless region of Asia and Africa.—­The
Andes.—­Map of the rainless region.—­Valley
of the Nile.—­The Red Sea.—­The
oases.—­Siweh.—­Mountains of the
Moon.—­The River Nile.—­Incessant
rains.—­Inundation of the Nile.—­Course
of the river.—­Subsidence of the waters.—­Luxuriant
vegetation.—­Absence of forests.—­Great
antiquity of Egypt.—­Her monuments.—­The
Delta of the Nile.—­The Delta as seen from
the sea.—­Pelusiac mouth of the Nile.—­The
Canopic mouth.—­Ancient Egypt.—­The
Pyramids.—­Conquests of the Persians and
Macedonians.—­The Ptolemies.—­Founding
of Alexandria.—­The Pharos.

The story of Cleopatra is a story of crime. It
is a narrative of the course and the consequences
of unlawful love. In her strange and romantic
history we see this passion portrayed with the most
complete and graphic fidelity in all its influences
and effects; its uncontrollable impulses, its intoxicating
joys, its reckless and mad career, and the dreadful
remorse and ultimate despair and ruin in which it
always and inevitably ends.

Cleopatra was by birth an Egyptian; by ancestry and
descent she was a Greek. Thus, while Alexandria
and the Delta of the Nile formed the scene of the
most important events and incidents of her history,
it was the blood of Macedon which flowed in her veins.
Her character and action are marked by the genius,
the courage, the originality, and the impulsiveness
pertaining to the stock from which she sprung.
The events of her history, on the other hand, and
the peculiar character of her adventures, her sufferings,
and her sins, were determined by the circumstances
with which she was surrounded, and the influences which
were brought to bear upon her in the soft and voluptuous
clime where the scenes of her early life were laid.

Egypt has always been considered as physically the
most remarkable country on the globe. It is a
long and narrow valley of verdure and fruitfulness,
completely insulated from the rest of the habitable
world. It is more completely insulated, in fact,
than any literal island could be, inasmuch as deserts
are more impassable than seas. The very existence
of Egypt is a most extraordinary phenomenon. If
we could but soar with the wings of an eagle into
the air, and look down upon the scene, so as to observe
the operation of that grand and yet simple process
by which this long and wonderful valley, teeming so
profusely with animal and vegetable life, has been
formed, and is annually revivified and renewed, in
the midst of surrounding wastes of silence, desolation,
and death, we should gaze upon it with never-ceasing
admiration and pleasure. We have not the wings
of the eagle, but the generalizations of science furnish
us with a sort of substitute for them.